For my screenplay, it's about a gang of killers that have been going around committing murders for months and getting away with it, careful not leave any forensic evidence at the crime scenes, and not leaving any scents for the police dogs to pick up on. Only one of them is caught out of probable cause, but he the case cannot make it trial for lack of evidence. But during his time spent behind bars awaiting a probable cause hearing, he got bad publicity from the media, and the public now knows the one member as a suspect. After he is released, he breaks off contact with the other gang members, because he does not want to lead the police to them in case he is being monitored. So the trail goes cold.

The way the police catch them is by making a website of fans devoted to the killers. Their victims were not people who treated others badly, and the fans of the website are dedicated to what he is doing, showing support for his vision. The website is all fake though. All fake members, with fake IDs and profiles. It's created by the police as a means for the killers to find the website through the media talking about it, and he joins it. The "fans" on the site keep saying how they want to help the killers by bringing his vision more public.

Basically the killers were traumatized by bullies and persecutors for being different while growing up, and their targets are those who are persecutors to general people in their lives. So the fake fans want to get the killers' message more out there, write books about it, and get his vision for social change going. They post on the website, that they want the killers to post a message back agreeing that they will stop their crimes, as long as the world recognizes what they are trying to accomplish and want people to treat each other better and for the moral decaying in society to stop.

The fans agree to write and make as many public statements supporting the killers' cause as they can, just so long as he will stop once they do, cause the point will be made as far as it can be then. They tell the killers that even though they are admiring them killing bullies to cause social change, they feel that the killers must reach an end goal and stop, once their point is made. They want to help them make it, they say.

The killers message the fans using an email that cannot be traced, since they do not want the fans tracing them of course in case of being possibly caught. So the fans send the killers a message back saying that they are not sure if they are the killers or not, because many people on the site claim to be members of the gang, and they are not sure who is for real, and who is just saying they are.

So they message the gang privately on the site, and tell them that in order to be sure, and come to want to help give the gang what they want, they want to meet the gang in person, in a public place to talk it all out and agree to terms.

They say in order to establish that they are the real gang, they want the gang to send their one member who was caught and released before. That way they will know the gang is for real, if they send their one member who is already known to the world. But they cannot meet the gang's terms, if they do not send that member to meet in person to go through the specifics with.

Since the gang would like to have more satisfactory results, they agree to send that member, but they all go to the public place as well, as back up, outside in other areas, in case something goes wrong.

So they agree to send that one member to meet the fans in a parking structure. The fan goes to meet them and they talk terms. But it's all recorded, cause the fans are cops. The fan figures it out and resists,, causing the cops to take him captive. The other gang members see it happens and rush out of their areas they are hiding in and take on the cops, but fail.

THIRD ACT #2

The other climax I have is there is a crooked cop, who is involved with the gang but then wants to turn good and wants to turn them in. What if that cop faked his own death and made it appear that the villains are the most likely suspects... The cop gives the police force, enough bread crumbs that leads to the suspects property and associates, and the police can get warrants to search, do wire taps, etc.

The police then find evidence, not on the cop's faked death, but on evidence of the gang's past crimes...

The only thing is, if a cop fakes his death and the police investigate it, but then find out it was a faked ruse on his part likely, but however, turned up evidence of other crimes 'accidentally', in the process, can they use that evidence cause it was turned up by accident?

For example, there seems to be a fine legal line in the difference between fruit of the poisonous tree evidence, compared to evidence, that was found accidentally, while investigating another matter. If the matter that is being investigated was a ruse, could the evidence of other past crimes, discovered by accident still be used, in relation to those past crimes, as long as the evidence proves to be authentic? And even though the fake death was a ruse, what if the investigation of the fake death, was all done by the book? Can the accidental evidence still be admitted then, compared to not doing things by the book, resulting in evidence being tainted?

Or maybe it would be better for the crooked cop, to fake his own kidnapping instead, and have the police investigate him being kidnapped instead, cause he could then have a better reason for being alive, and say he escaped the kidnapping.

Or I could write it so that the crooked cop gets killed for real, by the villains, or by the MC in the heat of the moment. The MC can then still frame the villains for his death, and manipulate other police characters, into getting revenge on the villains, which will lead them to follow a trail of bread crumbs to get to the evidence that is needed to charge the villains.

Each plan for to get the villains both have their pros and cons it seems. Which plan do you think is better for a third act, from what it sounds like?

I like the first one best. Judging by the way that you wrote it, I think you also like the first one best.

IDEAS ON #1:This would be the easier choice of the two. It's not as complex a concept as #2 is. You have it all thought out, and If you write it well, it will turn out nicely. You can even keep the viewer from knowing that THE FANS are actually COPS for a portion of it. I've seen something similar to this done in a book before (not the killer part, but the "government-type-people disguised as fans and teens" part) and I really enjoyed it. (If I recall correctly, the book is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow) (Here's a link to that book, if you want to check it out: https://www.wattpad.com/story/4388430-little-brother)

IDEAS ON #2:You explained this one as less of a description, and more of a series of questions and doubts. It's going to be really difficult to write this part if you're confused on how the evidence can and will be used. I also think that this one is a bit too complex to put into a screenplay. Perhaps this could be better written in a novel of sorts. I feel it would need more explaining than what can be done on-screen.